David H. McIntyre
Dept. of Physics, Oregon State University
Spins is an interactive computer
program that simulates Stern-Gerlach measurements on spin 1/2 and
spin 1 particles. The original Macintosh version was written by D. V.
Schroeder (see Am. J. Phys. 61, 798 (1993)). We have
developed a JAVA version for use in the Paradigm course PH425: Spin and Quantum Measurement (archived web
site)
The SPINS program is available as an application or an
applet:
APPLICATION: The SPINS application is packaged as a
jar file. Download it to your
machine (you may have to right click and save). If you
have Java installed you can double click on the jar file,
or from the directory where the file resides type:
>java -jar spins.jar (which runs the java code)
If you do not have Java, you can download the Java
Runtime Engine from Sun
(JRE). More
Java help.
APPLET: You can open the
Spins Applet from a
browser. If you don't have the java plug in, your browser
will ask you to download it (you need it).
The original
Macintosh
version, upon which the new Java version is based, is
still available if you desire.
The Java application and applet have run under Unix,
Windows, and Mac OS X.